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Wed, Jun 16, 10 at 22:53
| Does anyone have experience using this product as the main ingredient in a bonsai soil mix.
It appears to be a basic hard baked clay and I think it should work with about 20 or 30 percent organic material mixed with it. I hope it works. I just bought a 25 pound bag. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Just Googled it, and it says that it improves on dry, sandy soils that lead to "excessive drainage", just the kind that so many conifers in fact should be planted in for bonsai. It seems to be a product designed for garden veggies, and may very likely hold more water than you want for your trees. It may not be bad for indoor tropicals, but I hope you didn't spend a lot on it if you're planning to use it for growing outdoors. |
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| It was $14.00 a bag. It is a dark grey or black and a little smaller than turkey grit. It is really hard. Hold water? I'll soak some of it in water and see how long it takes to dry I'll do the same for turface and granite grit. |
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| It's Haydite, and a little too large to be well-suited for use in most bonsai soils. It holds a little more water than granite and quite a bit less than Turface. Al |
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| Al Have you actually tried it??? It looks like it would never break done like Turface.It looks like it might work well mixed with granite and some organic material. Maybe it could be used on WISTERIA OR A QUINCE??? Anyway I am going to experiment. |
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| Have fun. ;o) I've had a bag for several years and refrained from trying it because I can easily see the particle size is too large. You could use it if you mixed a fraction of it into other smaller particles so the smaller particles were at least 2/3 of the o/a volume, but soils work much better if all the particles are roughly the same size and the particles are in that 3/32 to 3/16 size range. Soil Perfector is mostly 3/8+ and holds little water. I can see no logical reason for me to consider using it, with Turface and granite readily available. BTW - Turface is very stable, almost ceramic-like and doesn't break down, even if frozen in a solid block of ice. Al |
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- Posted by head_cutter (My Page) on Fri, Jun 18, 10 at 22:20
| I was never a big fan of Turface, most of the product we seemed to find (in the western Pa area) was about 30 to 40% sand sized to dust per bag and that had to be thrown away. A bunch of us did find Haydite, from the plant near Akron Oh, which was 1/8" cube and very uniform in size. Which would make it (average) a little smaller than turkey grit. I'm not advocating a 'road-trip' but, with about 40 of us using it the trip (every 2 years) from Pittsburgh to there to get a dump truck load was worth it. The price was very right too, as I remember the 3 tons in bulk was around $500. It was the color of Turface to a little darker, high-fired, had good absorption properties and didn't break down (at least that was noticible) over time. If memory serves it was manufactured to be used as an aggrigate to add texture to concrete when parging cement block walls. It just happened to work well as an additive for Bonsai soil ;)) Bob |
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| FWIW - 1/8" Haydite is considerably different from 3/8"+ Soil Perfector. Al |
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- Posted by head_cutter (My Page) on Sat, Jun 19, 10 at 19:17
| Ya Al, that was an easy one, didn't even have to get my trusty ruler out this time. Bob |
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| I love you 2 guys.:o) Keep your fingers crossed. I just planted a collected 50 year old(guess)boxwood cut back to 40" x 27" with a 3" trunk and about 5" nebari. It will be watered at least 4 times a day for 2 weeks and I will cut back on the water gradually. The soil is 50 percent "Soil Perfector", 30 percent turkey grit, 20 percent long fiber sphagnum. Wish me luck. Paul |
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| Paul, why do you think you need to water 4 times a day for a boxwood? I know it's newly planted, but unless you're in Arizona - which I can see you're not - and have it planted in noth8ing at all but 100% grit, I think it could be too much. Boxwoods normally can get just about all dry between waterings and I would suggest you check carefully between times to be sure your schedule is necessary... which I strongly doubt. |
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| Larke My thinking is that a lot of roots and branches were lost for such a large boxwood and the soil being used is well draining so more water on roots and more spraying on the tree at least till it gets established. I am open to any and all suggestions as this really is a nice tree and if I can keep it alive will be a nice bonsai in a few year. The soil mix I used is in my last post |
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| The less foliage a tree has, the less water it needs (that's the principle, not specific for your tree). I would do it maybe twice (once early afternoon if possible and early evening, and see how things go. Just keep a close eye on things to see early signs of wilting, but even that could mean too much water. Too bad we don't have ouija boards! |
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- Posted by spaceman13 6b (My Page) on Mon, Jun 21, 10 at 19:54
| Head cutter, You may have gotten the wrong Turface product. I got mine from Agway, and they had both the Turface "MVP" which is a soil conditioner. This is what you want. They also had a different product called "Quick Dry" that is very sandy. It is used to soak up water on pitchers mounds, batters box and so on. Make sure you ask for the "MVP" product...it's mostly 1/8" particles, very little Sand sized particles, and very little waste. Mark |
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| Larke I'll try your way, water roots twice a day but also spray the foliage 2 more times. |
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- Posted by head_cutter Vietnam (My Page) on Wed, Jun 23, 10 at 8:01
| space... we were buying MVP from Agway and a few other places when we were using it. All of the bags were about the same as far as content. We ran into the Haydite place when a bunch of us were out in Ohio helping Keith Scott with a bunch of his trees...it was lust at first sight ;)) Bob |
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| I also found that half of the mvp had to be thrown away or used for cuttings, But, one of the bonsai nurseries makes a mixture of MVP, peat moss. and grow grit w/o sifting. His reasoning is that it will last 2 to 4 years and be changed anyway. His plants do really very well with this mixture and soil changing regime. |
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